Chadians

LANGUAGE:
French, Arabic (official languages); more than 100 local languages

RELIGION:
Traditional African religion; Islam; Christianity

1 • INTRODUCTION

In the eleventh century, traders from north Africa were searching for
gold and slaves. They came to the area that is Chad, and introduced the
religion of Islam. In the early twelfth century, one region of
present-day Chad had a Muslim king. His kingdom, known as Kanem,
remained powerful until the French explorers arrived in the late 1800s.

French won control over Chad in the Battle of Kousseri in 1900. But Chad
was a low colonial priority for the French. They made only halfhearted
attempts to develop it. Chad won its independence in 1960. A few years
later, Muslims from the north fought against the government. France sent
troops to support the Christian government, but neither side has won
control. Chad remains in turmoil.

2 • LOCATION

Chad is a landlocked country, far from oceans and seas. It has an area
roughly equal to Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona combined,
stretching over 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) from north to south. The
middle of the country is a region called the Sahel. The Sahel is
semi-desert. Lake Chad forms part of Chad's border with its
neighbors, Niger and Nigeria, and is the fourth-largest lake in Africa.
Magnificent sand dunes cover the land in the north. Mountain ranges
cover stretches of the southwest, east, and far northwest.

The population of Chad is over 6 million. There are about 200 ethnic
groups that
speak more than one hundred distinct languages.

3 • LANGUAGE

French and Arabic are Chad's official languages, but more than
one hundred local languages are spoken. Chadian Arabic includes more
than thirty dialects that people throughout the country use to
communicate with each other.

4 • FOLKLORE

Many Chadians revere the World War II (1939–45) hero Félix
Eboué (1884–1944), in whose memory was erected a magnificent
monument in the city of N'Djamena.

The earliest settlers around Lake Chad were the
Sao.
Legends held that the Sao were giants possessing great strength. They
could run long distances in just hours and pull up trees like blades of
grass. Sao women could lift huge ceramic
granaries
(jugs to hold grain), holding an entire year's harvest with a
single hand.

5 • RELIGION

Chadians follow three religious traditions: traditional African religion
that focuses on ancestors (35 percent), Islam (55 percent), or
Christianity (10 percent). In Chad, Islam and Christianity have absorbed
a number of beliefs from traditional African religion. Although Islam
has been influenced by traditional African religion, Chadian Muslims are
strict in their beliefs. For example, during the holy month of Ramadan,
all Muslims fast (don't eat or drink) during daylight hours.
Chadian Muslims do not even swallow their own saliva from sunrise to
sunset during Ramadan.

6 • MAJOR HOLIDAYS

Traditional holidays having to do with seasons and harvesting are
festive occasions. For example, in the southern farming region,
festivals are held during the millet harvest in September to November
and again during the New Year in December. At New Year, the chief
appears after a month of confinement in his lodge. In his regal dress,
the chief marches slowly, accompanied by dignitaries. Musicians play
long horns made from gourds, and dancers perform. Afterward, the local
hosts serve a splendid meal to visitors who come from great distances to
join the celebration. Secular (nonreligious) holidays such as
Independence Day generally hold less interest for Chadians than do
Muslim and Christian holidays.

7 • RITES OF PASSAGE

The
Sara yondo
is a ceremony held to help a young man from southern Chad achieve
adulthood. Every six or seven years, older men gather with boys for
several weeks during school vacations. During these meetings, the men
teach the youths about authority so that they can assume the
men's role. When the process is complete, the boys are considered
men. They no longer associate with their mothers and sisters as before,
and must eat and live separately. Similar ceremonies for girls teach
them household responsibilities and respect for male authority.

8 • RELATIONSHIPS

As in other regions of Africa, greeting and leave-taking are important
parts of human relations. Muslims exchange a standard series of
greetings. They ask about the other person's well-being, and that
of his wife and family, too. After each exchange, the listener touches a
hand to his or her chest. This signals gratitude that all is well with
the other person.

It is an honor to receive visitors. Chadian hosts always offer the
visitor something to eat—or at least a glass of water—as a
sign of hospitality. In the dusty Sahel region, hosts usually offer
visitors water to wash their faces, hands, and feet. In the south,
visitors may be welcomed by a large container of millet beer. It is
considered impolite to leave before the beer has been drunk.

9 • LIVING CONDITIONS

Living conditions are very harsh in most rural areas of the country. In
1995, life expectancy in Chad was forty-seven years.

In towns in the semi-desert region, the Sahel, homes are built inside
walled compounds. Mud bricks held together with straw and camel dung are
used to make the walls and the roofs. Houses consist of one or two
rooms. The interior is dark, because the houses typically have only one
or two small windows. Houses are used mainly
only for sleeping in the cooler and rainy seasons, and for storage.
Kitchen rooms are often separate. Meals may be cooked outdoors.

10 • FAMILY LIFE

The Toubou and Daza people of the Sahara Desert are nomads (people who
move frequently, carrying their homes with them). The main social unit
of nomads is the clan. It is not uncommon for people from more than one
clan to live together in groups of around one hundred people.
Camps—groups of families—form when they need to work
together during the growing season, and they disband later. Clan members
are scattered everywhere, so people usually find kinsmen (relatives or
others from their clan) in most camps.

By contrast, the more settled people of the Sahel identify with the
kashimbet.
This is a unit composed of an elder male or group of males, their
wives, and descendants. Unlike the nomads, these extended families stay
together.

11 • CLOTHING

Clothing styles vary according to climate zone and ethnic group. The
sun, heat, and blowing sand in the north require clothing that covers
the entire body except for the face. Men often wear light cotton pants
under white cotton robes. They wrap a white or red-and-white scarf
around their heads in the form of a turban. Women wear robes that cover
the entire body except face, hands, and feet. Boys wear simply cut cloth
shirts and pants, while girls may wear cotton shirts with wraparound
cloth skirts.

Recipe

Millet Porridge

Ingredients

1 cup millet (available at health food stores)

1¾ cups water

½ teaspoon salt

sugar or honey

Directions

Place millet in a strainer and rinse. Allow to drain until water is
no longer dripping.

12 • FOOD

Despite the harsh climate, Chadians grow a large variety of food. The
staples are sorghum and millet. The millet is pounded into flour. Dough,
shaped into a ball,
boule
(bOOl), is made by combining boiling water
and millet flour. Millet also makes a delicious porridge. It is
sweetened and eaten to break the fast during Ramadan. Chadians in the
Sahel are fond of okra and meat sauce. Travelers find grilled goat meat
with dried hot pepper and freshly squeezed lime at "truck
stop" eateries in Sahelian roadside villages.

13 • EDUCATION

The effects of the war, limited financing, overcrowding, and the
classical French curriculum have combined to make it difficult for
Chadian children to excel in school. Primary school is compulsory,
although only one in four children actually attends. There are far more
elementary and high schools in the south than in the north. Students who
make it to high school attend either a four-year program
(collége)
or a seven-year program
(lycée).
To get a diploma, students must take a state exam, the
bac
, which is passed by only about a third of those who take it.

Ten years after independence, Chad opened its first university for the
1971–72 academic year.

14 • CULTURAL HERITAGE

Many Chadians express their cultural heritage through ceremonial dress,
music, and
dance. The Chadian national folkloric ballet is particularly popular.

Among the principal musical instruments are tam-tams, pottery drums,
goat-horn whistles and flutes, and gourd-cala-bash horns. Chadians also
excel at making five-stringed harps and
balafons
, which are similar to xylophones.

15 • EMPLOYMENT

More than 80 percent of Chadians are engaged in subsistence farming,
herding, and fishing. Cotton is the biggest cash crop, providing more
than 50 percent of the country's foreign earnings. Industries
include textiles, meatpacking, beer brewing, and the manufacture of
soap, cigarettes, and construction materials.

16 • SPORTS

Children and young people play organized soccer, European handball, and
basketball. In the cities, soccer club teams compete with one another.
The game is played wherever space permits. Horse racing is practiced in
the Sahel, northeast of N'Djamena.

17 • RECREATION

With the exception of a small urban elite, Chad remains one of the few
places in the world insulated from Western pop culture. In contrast to
American teenagers, most Chadian young people have never seen a movie,
either at the theater or on a video cassette recorder. Many have never
seen television. Chadian entertainment consists of social and cultural
events and ceremonies, which include dancing, drumming, and musical
performance (
see
Cultural Heritage).

18 • CRAFTS AND HOBBIES

Traditional folk art in Chad has a long history, dating to the iron age.
Artists and craftsmen learn and master the techniques of their craft and
pass on the traditions to their sons and daughters. Articles produced by
Chadian artists include masks, jewelry, ceramic pots, and bronze
statuettes and figurines. Craftspeople spin cotton fabrics and weave
strips of cloth that are sewn together to make durable garments. They
also fashion leather goods including sandals and amulets.

Chadian craftsmen produce musical instruments of extremely high quality
using materials such as wood, animal guts and horns, and calabashes.

19 • SOCIAL PROBLEMS

As Chad modernizes, traditional social networks have been disrupted. Its
people must also cope with other problems that come from urbanization,
such as crime and pollution. The political anarchy (disorder) of the
1970s and 1980s has led to lawlessness in parts of the country.

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